Fact Sheet on Marcus Garvey

Full Name:

Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr.

Parents:

  • Malcus ("Marcus") Mosiah Garvey, a mason
  • Sarah Jane Richards, a domestic servant and produce grower

Born:

17 August 1887, at St. Ann's Bay, north coast of Jamaica

Died:

10 June 1940, London, England

Buried:

Marcus Garvey Memorial, National Heroes' Park, Kingston, Jamaica

Citizenship:

  • British colonial subject
  • applied for American citizenship in 1921

Education:

  • Standard 6, Church of England school, Jamaica
  • audited courses, Birkbeck College, London, 1914

Employment:

  • printer
  • journalist
  • publisher

Marriages:

  • Amy Ashwood (1897--1969), co-founder of the UNIA in Jamaica, journalist, feminist, playwright, business manager of UNIA offices in Harlem, 1919 (married to Garvey 1919--1922)
  • Amy Jacques (1896--1973), legal assistant in Jamaica before migrating to U.S., where she became business manager and personal secretary to Garvey in 1920, associate editor of the Negro World 1924--1927, and Garvey's unofficial representative during his incarceration in 1925--1927, becomes main propagandist of the Garvey movement with Philosophy and Opinions, published in 2 volumes, 1923, 1925 (married to Garvey 1922--1940)

Children:

  • Marcus Garvey Jr. (1931--)
  • Julius Winston Garvey (1933--)
  • both by Amy Jacques; both born in Jamaica, now U.S. residents

Countries of residence:

  • Jamaica, 1887--1910
  • Panama, 1910
  • Costa Rica, 1911
  • Jamaica, 1912
  • England, 1912--1914
  • Jamaica, 1914--1916
  • United States, 1916--1927
  • Jamaica, 1927--1935
  • United Kingdom, 1935--1940

Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) Career:

  • founds UNIA in Jamaica, July 1914
  • forms branch in New York City, May 1916 (January 1918?)
  • incorporates movement in New York state, June 1918
  • starts Negro World newspaper, August 1918
  • starts Black Star Line shipping company, 1919
  • starts Negro Factories Corp., 1920
  • announces Liberian Colonization Plan, 1920
  • sends first delegation to Monrovia, Liberia, 1921
  • makes organizational tour of Caribbean and Central America, 1921
  • arrested and indicted on Mail Fraud Charges, 1922
  • meets with Acting Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, causing backlash of opposition from other black leaders, 1922
  • second UNIA delegation sent to Liberia, 1923
  • starts Black Cross Navigation and Trading Co. to replace defunct Black Star Line;
  • UNIA purchases Smallwood-Corey School ("Liberty University") in Claremont, Virginia
  • tours Europe, 1928
  • becomes proprietor of Edelweiss Park, a social center for blacks in Kingston
  • tries to establish political career in Jamaica
  • begins publishing the Blackman, 1929
  • begins publishing the New Jamaican
  • begins publishing the Black Man, 1933
  • bankrupt, announces move to London, 1934
  • teaches School of Arican Philosophy to UNIA leaders in Toronto, 1937
  • cerebral hemorrhage, January 1940
  • dies 10 June 1940
  • James Stewart elected UNIA president, August 1940
  • headquarters of UNIA moved to Cleveland, Ohio

Mail Fraud Trial:

  • Begins May 1923
  • convicted June 1923
  • appeal denied February 1925

Imprisonment:

February 1925--November 1927, federal penitentiary, Atlanta, Georgia

Deportation:

December 1927
Copyright © 1995-2014 The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project, UCLA